


Truth

by Shadowslayer1331



Series: Sliders: Another Path [4]
Category: Sliders (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mystery, Psychological Drama, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28873224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowslayer1331/pseuds/Shadowslayer1331
Summary: Rembrandt awakens in Gate Haven Hospital with no memory of how he got there. With doctors claiming his friend's aren't real and that sliding is all in his head can Rembrandt separate truth from fiction?
Series: Sliders: Another Path [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034220
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

White, all he saw was white as he opened his eyes. Sitting up he found himself in a small room, four white walls surrounding him with a single metal door. He sat in a bed with white sheets, the floor a white tile. Even his shirt and pants were white. On his wrist was a medical bracelet with the words Gate Haven written across. He remembered the name, Wade’s uncle worked there. It was a mental institution.

The only other thing in the room besides his slightly uncomfortable bed was the overly bright overhead lighting. He was quick to his feet, rushing to the door to try and open it. As he found it wouldn't budge he looked through the doors thick glass window, seeing a hallway of doors similar to his own. Next to each room was a small nameplate with the words ward written on them, followed by a number.

Why was he in this mental hospital? How the hell did he end up here?!

The last thing Rembrandt remembered was sliding with his friends, but everything went blank after entering the vortex. It almost felt like waking up from a dream. He began to bang on the door, his patience all but spent as the bright lights of the room began to hurt his eyes.

“Hello, is anyone out there? Where am I, why am I here?! Someone open the door, please!”

As he yelled he began to hear laughter coming from the other rooms, the other inmates beginning to bang on their doors too, the sounds echoing throughout the hall. Despite how loud it all sounded even after several minutes nobody came to see what was going on. Pacing in the small confined quarters Rembrandt began to panic, trying to steady his breathing.

He couldn’t remember anything past the slide. Were Wade, Q-ball, and the professor okay? Were they trapped in rooms like the one he was in? Were they alive, did they know he was here? He had too many questions and too few answers. This entire situation made no sense to him, how did he even get here? Was he perhaps confused for his double? His friends wouldn’t leave without him, bringing his double along and not realizing it? What if they were separated, or even worse on a completely different Earth?

He closed his eyes and brought his trembling hands to them, rubbing at them. He needed to calm down. If Q-ball and the others were out there they were surely doing everything in their power to break him out. He would just have to give them time. He only hoped it wouldn’t take too long.

* * *

After an unknown amount of time passed, perhaps three hours, though he wasn’t entirely sure, Rembrandt was startled by the door opening. Quickly standing from his bed he saw three men enter the room, the center dressed as a doctor. With a surprised look, the doctor raised his clipboard, flipping through a few pages before smiling up at him.

“You don’t normally react to our presence when we enter the room. Just as I expected, the new medicine must be working” the doctor said proudly.

Medicine? Did they put something in him while he was asleep? That idea alone brought a shiver down his spine. His mind hearkened back to the world of the unnatural smiles. How that world's government didn’t hesitate to force drugs on its citizens. While he never had to take that drug himself he couldn’t help but imagine those citizens must have felt as violated as he did now.

“Look man there must be some mistake, I don’t belong here. What did you make me take?” Rembrandt asked, looking nervously between the three men.

The doctor shook his head, looking back down at the clipboard as he replied, reading off some of the details written on the page.

“Your name is Rembrandt Lee Brown, also known as the Cryin Man. Born March 4th, 1955. On September 27, 1994, you were going to sing the national anthem at a San Francisco Giants baseball game. Prior to this, you were part of the Spinning Tops for some time before going solo. You have an older brother named Cezanne. Need I go on?”

As the doctor looked back up at him Rembrandt felt sick, knowing this complete stranger practically knew his entire life and yet he didn’t even know why he was here, or what they made him take. Was his double crazy, or were these people looking to exploit him for whatever reason? Was this man really a doctor, or was something far more nefarious going on?

“Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on here. Would you mind filling me in, starting with the drug you made me take?” Rembrandt asked, voice cold and harsh.

The doctor only sighed, once again looking to the clipboard and reading through the notes.

“Let me guess, the last thing you remember is sliding with Wade Welles, Maximilian Arturo, and Quinn Mallory?”

That made the blood in Rembrandt's veins frost over. What did this guy do to his friends? As he was about to voice his concerns he spotted a fourth figure in the hall behind the three men, one he immediately recognized as Quinn. Soon Arturo and Wade approached Quinn from out of sight, the three looking at him in confusion.

“Rembrandt, what are you doing over there? Come on, you’re going to miss the slide!”

“Indeed, Mr. Brown. Now is not the time for lollygagging”

“Come on Rembrandt, let's go!”

The three laughed, walking out of sight, almost as if they couldn’t see the three men blocking the doorway. Likewise, the three men didn’t seem to notice his sliding friends either. He stepped forward, wanting to rush after them, but the two men beside the doctor immediately rushed at him, grabbing his arms. He struggled, breathing labored as he tried to break free and follow his friends.

“Professor! Wade! Q-ball! Help me!” Rembrandt yelled, looking to the two asylum guards clinging to his arms. The Doctor approached him, a look of concern on his face.

“You can see them, Rembrandt? These friends of yours, even though you escaped the delusions?” he asked.

“Delusions, what do you mean delusions?” Rembrandt replied with a bite in his tone.

The doctor's face shifted to a look of pity, nodding to the two guards who finally released Rembrandt as he did so. Stepping out of the room and gesturing for him to follow, Rembrandt slowly exited the room, only to see an empty hallway, his friends nowhere in sight.

“Rembrandt this may come as a shock to you, but I feel you should know the truth, regardless of what Dr. Ford thinks. I am Dr. Henry Smith and I am fairly new to your case. My main goal was to help you break free of these sliding delusions. You see, on September 27, 1994, you never made it to the Giants game.” Dr. Henry said with compassion.

“Well, yeah. I didn’t make it because I drove into a wormhole” Rembrandt replied, eyeing the doctor with heavy suspicion.

Shaking his head, Dr. Henry sighed.

“No, Rembrandt, you didn’t. That day something went wrong and you crashed, the accident causing serious brain damage. You survived but began to live inside these delusions of sliding, a feat that couldn’t possibly come to pass in reality. These wormholes, your friends, everything you believe you’ve experienced for the last three years? They never happened, Rembrandt. There is no Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, or Maximilian Arturo anywhere in the public records. They, much like sliding, were all in your head”


	2. Chapter 2

This place was hell. With no windows to the outside world, Rembrandt felt trapped, isolated from reality. Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days. Time itself seemed to bleed together. With no clocks or way to tell time he lost track of it a long time ago. He could only guess how much time passed since he first awoke here, the artificial lighting of his room remaining overly bright and beginning to cause him mild headaches.

He couldn't believe what the doctors were trying to tell him. Q-ball, Wade, and the Professor aren't real? Figments of his imagination, conjured up as hallucinations by his damaged brain? If that were true he would feel utterly lost without them. They became his family, and he didn't know how he would go on without any of them in his life.

Could his double be in this situation and they were swapped somehow? If only he could recall the events that happened after sliding. He found that as badly as he wanted to believe this was some sort of mix up, he couldn’t explain how he saw his friends in the hallway before. The doctor didn’t see them, nor did the guards. Q-ball and the others acted as if they weren’t standing in an asylum. None of it made sense to him.

Turning to the door he saw someone watching him through the window. He leapt to his feet, recognizing Wade instantly. With a bright smile, he ran to the door, placing his hands on it as he leaned closer to her, wishing there wasn't a thick layer of metal and glass standing between them.

“Girl you have no idea how excited I am to see you! Do you have the key to open the door? I don’t know when the guards will return to patrol this area” Rembrandt asked quickly, his smile shifting to a more serious look. For a brief moment he looked away from her, trying to see as far into the hall as he could, trying to watch her back.

“What are you talking about Remmy? There’s no door here. Come on, or you're going to miss the slide” she replied, beginning to walk out of his viewing range, raising her hand to him as if she were beckoning him to follow.

“No, Wade! Come back!” he slammed on the door, cursing to himself as she walked out of view. Grabbing his head he turned away, pacing in the confined room as he struggled to prevent more panic from overworking his tired mind. Why did they keep leaving him? Why didn’t they see they were in some hellish mental hospital?

He turned back sharply as he heard his door being unlocked, a brief moment of hope coming back to him, believing it was Wade opening the door. However a guard entered the room, gesturing for Rembrandt to follow, causing his previous smile to falter.

“Dr. Smith says you may spend some time in the recreational area, seeing as you are at least somewhat lucid now. Come along”

Rembrandt was quick to follow because it not only got him out of the room but because it also allowed him to get a lay of the land. If he could figure out the twists and turns of this hellish asylum then maybe he could find some sort of escape, granted his friends were unable to find him first. As the thought came to his mind so did the unwanted idea that they may not even exist, making him feel truly alone in this unfamiliar setting.

The walk to the recreational area was short, with a few winding hallways. They all looked the same, easy to get lost in if you didn’t know the area well, turning or branching off in unnatural ways. Every hallway shared the bright, almost blinding artificial lighting, with no windows or sunlight present in any room thus far. The rec area was no exception, filled with several other humans who sat in various areas playing with children's toys. He even saw one sitting at a table, chewing on checkers pieces.

A brief look around the room revealed nothing that could offer any view of the outside world, such as pictures, magazines, or a television. The only things in the room were the guards, fellow prisoners, and himself. Sitting alone at a table he buried his face in his hands, unsure what he could possibly do now, wanting more than anything to see another color besides the bright, blinding white.

“Rembrandt”

He wanted to scream. Torn between joy and sorrow upon hearing the voice. Would he just vanish, like Wade did previously, or all three of them did when he first saw them?

“Q-ball?”

He lowered his hands, seeing Quinn sitting across from him, a nervous look on his face. He was wearing a guard's outfit, pulling something out of his pocket. Rembrandt recognized it immediately, his own eyes widening as Quinn slipped it onto the table.

“The Egyptian Timer? But how? We got rid of it after the professor came back with his more advanced model” Rembrandt whispered, looking between Quinn and the guard standing by the door.

“There isn't enough time to explain right now, Rembrandt, but you have to trust me. It wasn’t easy getting in here, and we have to slide, now” Quinn replied, pointing to the timer.

Rembrandt’s own eyes widened as he looked back to the timer, taking a closer look. He saw the timer only read ten seconds left until the next slide.

“But what about Wade and the professor?” Rembrandt was quick to ask.

“They will meet us using the professor's timer. We need to slide from here, you open the gateway while I distract the guard” Quinn replied, getting up and approaching the guard standing by the doorway. Rembrandt was quick to snatch the Egyptian timer, turning away from the guard and Quinn to open the vortex.

As he did, his body went cold. He looked down to the device in his hands, gripping it tighter as he saw it no longer resembled the Egyptian timer. Instead, he was holding a regular RCA NiteGlo Universal TV remote, no conversions or modifications present to even make it resemble the timer he and his friends used for a short time.

With horror he turned back to the guard, only to see Quinn was nowhere to be found. Tears began to form in his eyes as the guard looked over to him, smiling as he spotted the remote in his hands.

“Still playing with that broken remote Dr. Smith gave you last week? They never told me why they gave that to you, what do you do with it? Pretend you're watching MTV?”

The guard laughed to himself, turning away as if he didn’t really expect a response. Rembrandt just dropped the remote, putting his hands to his head as he began to shake, the tears falling down his cheeks as the weight of recent events began to take a toll on him.

This couldn’t be true, it couldn’t be. Quinn, Wade, and the professor were real, they were real! Sliding was real! He wanted to scream it from the rooftops, let everyone know how much he believed in his small family. Yet as loudly as he tried to tell himself that he believed those words, his eyes wouldn’t leave the previously discarded television remote sitting on the nearby floor.


	3. Chapter 3

With no other way to tell time Rembrandt instead kept track of when the guards would bring him his medication. He attempted to figure out just how long they waited to offer each dose but found keeping track of even that was hard. Whether it was multiple doses a day, or only one, he didn’t know. The only thing he did know was that the guards did not watch him as they gave him the medicines, so he instead pocketed the pills, flushing them when offered bathroom visits.

He’d been given pills seven times, so if his medicine was to be taken once a day he had been here a week now. The isolation and lack of sleep were severely taking their toll on his mental health. He had daily headaches thanks to the lighting and when brought up to the doctor it was always brushed off. They didn’t seem to care much for his comfort, claiming the lights were at a decent level. This neglect to his welfare led him to doubt their sincerity about wanting to help him, not that he trusted them anyway. This entire hospital was a realm of torture, clearly not designed to help those with an ill mind.

Throughout the week he saw Quinn, Wade, and the professor several times, sometimes outside of the room and out of reach, other times in the cell with him, vanishing the moment he blinked, reached for them or looked away. They would always promise him freedom, offering to slide out of this place or help him, only to vanish the moment he got his hopes up.

Once again he sat in his bed, Quinn standing nearby with the professor's timer.

“Rembrandt, thank god I finally found you. Look, we don’t have much time. I can explain once we reach the next Earth” Quinn said, pressing a button on the timer. Unlike every past hallucination, a bright sky blue vortex formed in the room, causing the wind to pick up and blow against his face.

He stood, watching the familiar gateway with wide eyes, a small smile gracing his features. Was this finally the real Quinn? Would he be able to slide and escape this hell? Even if it were all delusions he didn’t care anymore. He would gladly go back to living in his hallucinations than continue to live here. Quinn leapt into the vortex, Rembrandt following close behind. However, rather than slide, he seemed to faze through the gateway, slamming hard into the wall behind it. Falling harshly to the ground as he heard the vortex close, pain coursing through his body due to the impact. He curled in on himself, a fresh set of tears falling from his eyes as the little hope he had left wilted away.

* * *

Looking over from his side of the table Rembrandt watched doctor Henry with uncertainty. So far in the past week, they had four visits, each to discuss Rembrandt's delusions. The doctor seemed deeply interested in learning everything he could about his sliding adventures and comrades, claiming if he knew more about the hallucinations he could help combat them.

“Brown, you seem to be improving. Likely due to taking your medication” Dr. Henry said with a smile, “I would hate to think what would happen to you if you didn’t take those pills. Considering the extensive damage to your brain and the fact that you've been living in reality for more than a week now, it is more than likely the darkest parts of your psyche would resurface, bringing about much harsher hallucinations than you can handle. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

His voice sounded calm, friendly even, but Rembrandt knew what he was subtly referring to. Somehow the doctor knew he was flushing the pills. Was this some carefully veiled threat? Did he only just find out? Putting his shaking hands together Rembrandt leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.

“No, I don’t suppose we would. Do you mind telling me what this meeting is about?” Rembrandt asked, his voice laced with distrust and false bravado. He didn’t want to reveal just how mentally exhausted or terrified he was to this man.

On the last visit, they discussed the professor, the doctor overly interested in the new timer the professor and Azure Quinn created. He deflected the conversation, instead going on about how happy he was to have the professor back, eventually being led back to his room without explaining how it happened. He doubted he could do so again.

“Well, Rembrandt, I had hoped we could continue our conversation from last time. You mentioned your friend, the professor, found you using a more advanced timer than either Quinn’s original or the Egyptian models. What advancements did this timer possess? How did he find you if the multiverse is as vast as you previously claimed?”

Rembrandt just watched him, shaking his head and refusing to speak. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but something in his gut yelled at him. Telling him not to share the secret of the Quantum Scanner. The doctor's smile seemed to drop a little. He leaned closer as he spoke, his voice remaining sickeningly sweet.

“I can’t help you if you refuse to talk to me, Rembrandt. Now I will ask again, what advancements did Arturo create? How could he track you throughout the multiverse?”

Again Rembrandt refused to respond, the doctor's smile turning into a frown. They sat in silence for a long moment, before doctor Henry sighed loudly, now glaring at Rembrandt with a look of hatred.

“You have been cooperative for our last four visits, yet now you do not wish to speak? If anything you revealed your hand to me, human. I know this invention is important if you wish to hide it's truths from me. Now tell me what I want to know, or else I will use whatever means necessary to gain the information I desire”

Rembrandt froze, the doctor's voice coming out much deeper than it had before. Had he called him human? Licking his dry lips Rembrandt swallowed, thinking back to the time he and his friends were held captive by the Kromaggs. Could this be…

Suddenly Logan St. Clair appeared in the room, just behind the doctor. Raising her gun she fired three shots into Rembrandt's chest, the bullets ripping through muscle and causing him to scream in agony. Quickly he reached for his chest, only to realize there were no blood or bullet wounds present. Breathing heavily he looked around the room, only to see Logan no longer there.

“How did Arturo find you, human?! What were his advancements?! I do not have the time to continue coddling you. I want the information, now!” The doctor all but yelled, standing quickly and causing his chair to fall to the ground behind him. As he did so his face shifted, changing into the ugly ape-like features Rembrandt remembered from his capture. Its eyes were sunken in, its teeth a dark yellow color. His doctor's coat shifted into a black outfit, red stripes across the arms and legs.

Quickly Rembrandt got to his feet, moving away from the Kromagg and backing closer to the door. As he did so an alarm began to blare loudly throughout the room, one he remembered clearly from his previous time in the Kromaggs hands. Letting out a frustrated growl the maggot previously known as Henry pulled a weapon from his belt, aiming it at Rembrandt.

“It seems we are out of time, human. Your pathetic friends have been detected sliding here to save you. If you tell me what I want to know now, I will let you leave with them unharmed. Don’t you want to go with them? To see the sun, the sky, the grass again? Don’t you want to go home?”

It laughed, slowly beginning to approach him. He moved away until he could no longer, back against the wall as this thing continued to approach him. He felt cold as it whispered the next words, clearly taunting him.

“We know, human. We know these advancements can be used to get you home. We are tired of waiting. If you tell me now, we will remove the tracker from Mallory and allow you to leave. We will leave your home earth alone. Now I will ask one more time, and only once more. What did Arturo create to find you?!”

To his surprise the door beside him burst open before he could even contemplate a response, Quinn rushing past him and tackling the Kromagg, sending them both to the floor. Swinging his fist he knocked it unconscious, quickly getting to his feet and running back to his friend. Quinn had a bright smile on his face, grabbing his arm and pulling him out into the hall. He saw the professor and Wade as he exited the room, each giving him a look of relief.

“Thank goodness we found you when we did. Come along Mr. Brown, we must hurry.” Arturo yelled, pulling the advanced timer from his pocket and turning to open the vortex.

The familiar white walls were now a stark contrast to their original looks. Instead, the halls were dark and grey, reminding him of the eerie hallways from their first run-in with these freaks.

“Is it really you guys? These maggots have been filling my head with hallucinations, making me see fake versions of you. How did you get here, what took you so long?” Rembrandt yelled, voice mixed with joy and doubt. Quinn was quick to put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. Wade likewise grabbed his arm to offer her support.

“It’s us Cryin man. I’m sorry it took us so long but the professor and I had a few setbacks, preventing us from coming sooner. We can explain more once we get out of here. Come on, we have to go!”

As the professor opened the gateway Rembrandt just watched them, eyes narrowed in disbelief. This felt all too similar to every previous rescue attempt. They were fake, they had to be.

_We will explain everything on the next earth!_

_We have to hurry!_

_We finally found you, Rembrandt. Quickly, we must slide!_

As his mind yelled the same words he heard over and over at him the professor jumped into the vortex, followed by Wade. Quinn was about to as well when he noticed Rembrandt backing away, shaking his head. Reaching out a hand he attempted to step forward, but Rembrandt yelled, causing him to freeze.

“Stay back! I won’t fall for this again, I won’t keep letting you do this to me!” Rembrandt yelled, backing away further as Quinn once again attempted to reach for him.

“Rembrandt, please! Look, do you remember how we reunited with the professor? The world we were on? We landed on a world where the government tried to force drugs on the population in order to control them. I was captured and drugged myself, only to wake up and learn the professor survived!” Quinn said quickly, trying to convince Rembrandt to trust and follow him by recounting one of their many adventures, attempting to prove who he really was.

“I already told them about that! I won’t let this happen again! Leave me alone, go away!” Rembrandt screamed, covering his ears and closing his eyes, looking away from Quinn. His mind hearkened back to the previous hallucination, the one where he jumped into a wall.

Looking back to the vortex, then to Rembrandt Quinn stepped closer, raising his voice and speaking as quickly as he could. He did not want to leave him here, especially seeing him in this condition.

“A little over two weeks ago we landed on a world being conquered by the Kromaggs. We were prepared to slide out immediately but were stopped by some members of an escaped Kromagg prison group hiding in the city. It turns out some of them knew intricate details about the Kromaggs and their technology due to working under them as slaves for so long. They told us if we helped them leave that Earth they would remove the tracker and we could finally go home! We helped many of them escape but the Kromaggs found where we were hiding. They captured us and learned of the new timers, however the remaining prisoners saved us and we slid out, but they managed to recapture you before we could all escape. They know the professor's timer can help them find Earth Prime, but they don't know the specifics. They want the Quantum Scanner!”

Despite everything he said, Rembrandt continued to look away, covering his ears and muttering to himself. Cursing Quinn rushed over to him, prepared to force him into the vortex if he had to, only to be violently shoved away.

“I said leave me alone!” Rembrandt yelled, moving further away from this false image of his friend.

“Rembrandt there’s some kind of field around this Earth that prevented us from sliding here sooner. We broke through once, but we might not be able to do this again. Please, you have to come with us!” Quinn yelled, his voice laced with panic. He once again tried to reach for him, only for Rembrandt to move even further away. To his horror the vortex began to close, causing him to turn from Rembrandt and rush toward it, looking back and yelling as he did.

“We will come back for you, Rembrandt! Don’t give up, I swear we will save you somehow!”

As he ran for the vortex a Kromagg turned the corner, firing his weapon and hitting Quinn in the back. Letting out a pained scream he fell into the gateway, it closing as he made the slide. Seeing this Rembrandt watched in horror, reaching out for the now empty space where his friends used to be.

“...Q-ball?”

Just as suddenly as he stepped in that direction everything went black. The last thing he registered was the loud ringing of the Kromagg alarm and a burning pain in his upper back.

* * *

Jolting awake, Rembrandt sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and looking around the familiar cell, only to see it looked much nicer than he previously remembered. The walls were once again white, but the overhead lighting was much dimmer than before. It didn't hurt his eyes to look at them and even the bed was far more comfortable. Sitting next to the bed was none other than Dr. Henry, who once again looked human. Backing up against the wall Rembrandt let out a whimper, noticing his body was covered in sweat. The doctor noticed this and quickly stood, stepping away as he realized he was causing him distress.

“Rembrandt, please calm down. During our visit you had a complete mental breakdown. You fell back into your delusional state and attacked one of the guards. We managed to sedate you and bring you back here, where I administered a higher dosage of the medicine we previously gave you. I’m glad it brought you back. I only hope it will keep you here, rather than allow your mind to take you as it has in the past.”

He only watched the doctor, breathing heavily as he hugged his knees, burying his face in his hands. Henry watched him with a sad expression, slowly backing away to the door.

“I will give you some time to collect yourself. If you need me, just call for one of the guards and I will be here in a moment's notice. Please, just try to relax and take your time with this. I know it isn't easy, but you have a support system to help you.”

As he heard the door open and close he let out a soft cry, alone once more in his private hell.


	4. Chapter 4

The following two days were much nicer than Rembrandt became accustomed to in the time he'd been held here. Admitting that he’d only been here little over a week was hard. With how torturous this hellish asylum had been it felt like a lifetime. To his surprise, the bed remained comfortable and the overhead lighting remained at a warm ambiance. When permitted to leave his room the halls and recreational room also felt much more comfortable, but despite this, he still saw no signs of the outside world, no colors beyond the stark whites. At this point, he would give almost anything to see the outside world again.

Dr. Henry claimed the higher dosage of his medicine was why he could more clearly see the reality around him now, and that the much darker version of the hospital was caused by his damaged brain. If he continued to take the medicine then he should continue to see this much nicer reality, and perhaps escape his delusions entirely one day. He did notice a lack of Quinn, Wade, and Arturo appearances since this supposed upped dosage, which only lent more credence to the doctor's explanation.

Still, he didn’t take the medicines brought to him, the guards continuing to not watch him after giving him his pills. Had the conversation with the doctor even really happened, the one where he called him out on flushing his pills? He supposed not, considering another set of his fake friends appeared, as did the Kromaggs.

Rembrandt turned to the door as he heard it open, one of the asylum guards stepping inside and nodding his head to the open doorway.

“The doctor is ready to see you, this way please,” The guard said, his voice kind but authoritative. Rembrandt simply nodded, following after the guard as he was brought to the ever familiar room with a single table, the two sitting across from each other to talk.

He wondered what the doctor would want to talk about this time. Would he try to worm out information about the Quantum Scanner again? Granted the last conversation even happened. Perhaps the two were discussing an entirely different topic before he lost his mind. Regardless of what was true and what wasn't Rembrandt promised himself he would never openly tell anyone about the scanner. He knew very little about it, to begin with, he was no scientist, but he didn’t want to offer up anything that could potentially offer aid to a race like the Kromaggs.

He found his soul torn, half of him believing this may be some Kromagg trick, or some other parallel world screwing with his mind to abuse the power of Sliding. The first Logan he met wanted to perfect sliding too, after all, in order to steal the resources from other worlds. The other half of his soul believed none of it was real, and he finally awoke from a dream to find a cold, harsh and lonely reality. One that made him long to return to that dream, to his friends, to sliding.

“It’s good to see you again, Rembrandt. Are you feeling well? Is everything still feeling more comfortable to you?” Dr. Henry asked, smiling as he gave Remmy a look over. Rembrandt snapped out of his inner thoughts, focusing on the man sitting across from him.

“As well as can be expected, doc” Rembrandt replied, “I feel a lot better since I’ve been able to get some sleep. The lights still don’t hurt my eyes like they used to.”

“Good, good. I’m glad to see you’re doing better” Henry said, opening up the file on the table and looking through some of his notes. For a moment the two sat in silence, the doctor looking up with curiosity as he spoke once more.

“Rembrandt, I have to admit something about your story puzzles me. Perhaps you can tell me how you managed to do this for three whole years while supposedly traveling with your sliding companions. How did you keep going, despite all the hardships? How'd you manage to never lose yourself?”

“Excuse me? I don't follow” Rembrandt asked, looking at the doctor with confusion.

“You told me you landed on several worlds that almost led to your death. You were lost in a vast multiverse with almost no chance of ever seeing home again. You were robbed of your life and livelihood. You lost everything, yet somehow you continued to remain strong throughout the journey. You continued to help people, to stick by your friends no matter how dangerous a world seemed to be. How did you stay strong through it all? How did you not lose who you are in the process?”

“You know, I never thought of it before,” Rembrandt admitted, sitting back in his chair. He sat quietly for a moment, the doctor remaining silent as well to give him the needed time. Despite never thinking of this before, it didn’t take him long to find the answer.

“My friends”

“Your friends?”

“Yeah, my friends,” Rembrandt repeated, leaning forward once more, “no matter what world we landed on we were each other's constants. We could lean on each other, and we knew someone out there cared for us and would do anything to save us if it came down to that. I would die to save any one of them, and I know they would do the same for me. We are more than friends, really. We’re a family. It’s thanks to that family that we all had the strength to carry on”

Henry nodded, writing that down in his notes as he looked even more puzzled than he had previously.

“Is that why you want to go back into your delusions?”

“What?”

“You admitted it to me once, before we increased your dosage. You told me you would rather go back into the delusions and be with your friends again than live alone in this empty reality. Honestly it perplexed me. That you would leave a world with a father and brother waiting for you outside. That you would leave a world where you’re safe, to go back to being lost on worlds that could easily lead to your demise.”

Rembrandt was taken aback by this, remembering thinking this to himself while alone in his cell, but never speaking it aloud to anyone. Despite this, he responded, all the same, taking into consideration it may have been due to his supposed condition.

“You know, even with everything feeling more comfortable around here I would still feel so empty without them in my life,” Rembrandt admitted, “They are a part of me now, and I don’t know if I can go on without them. How did that old saying go again...I'd rather have a truth that hurts me, than a lie that makes me feel good? Well, for me, I'd rather the opposite. I want to see Q-ball, Wade, and the professor again. I want to be a part of their lives for as long as I continue to breathe. I just can’t imagine a more hellish place than a world where they never existed”

Henry just stared, stunned silent as he slowly nodded. Eventually, he found his voice again.

“You really care that deeply for these people? Their presence really had that profound of an impact on your life?” he asked, sounding skeptical now.

“Yes, I do and yes, it did,” Rembrandt replied, “I feel that Sliding really brought out the best in us. I don’t know what would have happened to Q-ball or Wade if we never got caught up in all this. But I did get a glimpse of what could have happened to the professor.”

“Because of his Azure double?”

“Yeah, the one who decided not to slide with our doubles. He became bitter, falling so far as to steal Q-balls invention and claim it as his own. He was so desperate for recognition in the scientific community that he stooped so low as to steal his own students' creation, even if he were his students double. Now the professor I know would never do such a thing, but he also wasn’t left behind on our Earth to become so bitter and lonely. He has a son in Q-ball, a daughter in Wade, and a brother in me. We have been a family to him and we helped to bring out the best in him.”

“What leads you to believe your Arturo could ever be capable of something like his Azure double?”

“Because his double died to save Quinn. We took the wrong Arturo, remember? He slid with us because he wanted to try stealing Q-balls credit again when we found Earth Prime. But several times in our adventures he helped us up when we fell, he cared for us, and in the end, he took a bullet to save someone he loved as a son. Does that sound like something a bitter man would do? Something a man who attempted to steal the credit of sliding would do?”

“No” Henry admitted, shaking his head.

“Exactly, that’s my point. I’m not saying the professor would have ever stooped as low as his double, he’s a good man. But if you really think about it so was his double, especially at the end of things. Truthfully we don’t know what would have happened to him if he never slid with us. What I do know is that sliding brought out the best in us, because we have each other. We brought a man so filled with bitterness to love and care for others once more, and now he will live forever in our hearts. If we did that for the professors double, then the same can be said for all of us.”

“So, sliding for you, despite all the dangers and the likelihood of never seeing home again, overall had a positive impact on your life. Yours and your friends?”

“If you asked me two years ago I’d have told you no. That I got pulled into some joyride I never wanted in on. But now isn't two years ago. I still miss my family, my world, the career I could have revitalized if I had the chance. I will always miss them, and I do hope to see them again someday. But I would never change what happened to me. Because of Sliding, we brought out our best qualities, and united as a family. They made me braver, more assertive, and they were always there for me in a way no one else has ever been in my life. Even if someday I have to accept that it was all in my head, I will cherish them in my heart and keep them alive in me until the day I die.”


End file.
